Unshackled Moments ~ June 30 ~ Whatever You Do

When I  first began to bring Bs and Cs home on my junior high report cards my mother interrogated me. The questions always started with some variation of if you needed help, why didn't you ask me or your Dad. And my honest answer was I didn't need help. Of course her next questions had to do with why I got low grades if I didn't need help. My response was that it didn't matter. I passed. It was good enough. I got low grades because I didn't do homework. I didn't want to do it, so I didn't. I calculated that  I could make As on the tests, zeros on the homework and pass.

My mother was not thrilled. In fact, she got quite upset with me. I should be doing better, because I could do better. Just passing wasn't good enough, if I could do better. Mom was never the kind of person who looked at a 95 and said, "Why didn't you make a 100?," if I did my best. In fact, if I did my best and got a B or C, she would be fine with that. But my best included getting help. But she wouldn't accept a 99 if the one point I missed was because I just didn't want to answer a question. That was not acceptable. My mother was never satisfied with mediocrity.

Mediocrity: the quality or state of being mediocre.

Well, that's helpful. Not. Do you ever want to tell the people who write dictionaries that they shouldn't use the same word to define a word? If you knew the definition of mediocre you wouldn't have needed to look up mediocrity, right? Mom would say stop whining and just look up mediocre, so I did, but I'll spare you the trouble and demonstrate how dictionaries should define words like this.

Mediocrity: the quality or state of being mediocre (d: of only moderate quality; not very good).

Synonyms of mediocre include: ordinary, average, middling, middle-of-the-road, uninspired, undistinguished, indifferent, unexceptional, unexciting, unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, pedestrian, prosaic, lackluster, forgettable, amateur, amateurish.  Ordinary. Average. Uninspired. Indifferent. My mom could be satisfied with ordinary or average results as long as the effort was never uninspired or indifferent, but those were not the words she would accept being descriptions of her son due to lack of effort. Mediocrity was never good enough. Never fail when you could pass. Never pass when you could excel Never excel when you can do it perfectly. Always do your best.

That wasn't me. It's still not. I don't see the  point. The Cs got me into the same honors classes as the kids who got As. The 2 point something got me the same degree as the four point O students got, and I have never once been asked on a job interview what my GPA was.
Do you have a degree?
 Yes.
Good.

And for me that was always good enough. Good enough to get by. Close enough for government work.  We all know the idiom and what it means. Do enough to fulfill the contract and get paid, but don't concern yourself with high quality, high standards or doing the job the best it can be done. The concept makes my mother cringe, But I never quite understood why. I've worked jobs where I busted  my tail feathers working hard, striving to do my best and never got any more pay, praise or reward than the folks who just got by. If the bosses were satisfied with good enough, why shouldn't I be? If I knew the college I planned to go to would accept me with my high SAT and low GPA why bother with homework? It wasn't logical. It was wasted  effort, energy and time.

But I realized recently that my mother was right. Something fell into place in my life, and changed my perspective on some things. One of the things that I woke up to differently was the idea that good enough was not good enough. I'm not talking about killing yourself with an impossible standard, of demanding perfection from imperfect ability. But my mother was right. Indifferent and uninspired effort is never enough, no matter what the task, or the reward.

My mother was right, because God is never satisfied with mediocrity. In everything we do, we are to do it as unto the Lord, as though we were doing it for Him, as an illustration of how we feel about Him. If I am to live my life as a living sacrifice for God, giving myself - all of me, the good and the bad - to Him as an offering for Him to do with as He will (which is what I declare with Step Three), that includes the labor I do, from chores to jobs. How can He have all of me in my work if I am not giving all of me there?

There are things that I am not good at. There are things where my best effort is passing at best. There are things where my best effort is failing. I don't need to beat myself up over these areas, and neither do you need to condemn yourself for your own areas of weakness. We all have them. And when our best isn't even close to good enough it gives God the chance to come in, make the difference and show His power for His glory. When we are weak, He is strong. But whether it's an area where we need a touch of grace or a ton, where we need one point to make the grade or where we can't get one point right, God deserves our best effort in all that we do. It's part of giving all of ourselves to Him.

In the parable of the talents the ruler didn't harass the middle earner for not making what the high earner did. He did his best, and that earned him praise from the ruler. It was the man paralyzed by fear, the one who put in no effort, who received rebuke. When we can't pass, God gladly takes our best and makes it amazing. He does for us and with us what we could never do ourselves. He takes Gideon and three hundred men and defeats armies. He takes junkies and drunks and makes productive members of society who can be counted on. He takes the rejected and makes corner stones. God can do amazing things in our lives, when we don't hold back, when we stop being satisfied with mediocrity, with middle-of-the-road. Jesus said I would rather you be hot or cold than lukewarm. Love me, or hate me, but whichever you do, do it. Don't be indifferent. Don't be mediocre.

One last note. I try to help out around the house. Right now, with my being unemployed, helping out means being househusband and maid for the most part. By that I mean with Leah working and me not working I do not feel or believe she should have to come home to any housework that needs to be done. I've always felt that way. I make the bed to make her smile, not because I believe it should be done. But she's had a mediocre househusband, I'm ashamed to say. I made the bed, but it would have never passed my mother's inspection. The house was kept enough to keep Leah from being driven to distraction from it. But it was never an A. She got C level quality with B level effort. For a while now she's been getting A level effort, because my effort level is nothing short of my best.

Now, I'm not saying everything appears great. The bed looks properly made, because I know how to do that, but there are still things where I am limited by ability, knowledge and or time. Some things are still not above barely passing. Some things are still Fs from the outside looking in, I'm sure. But the effort is there, and the grades will improve or I will ask for help and for instruction. The thing that surprised me though, when I began doing this, is that it didn't take much if any more time to do it right than to do it good enough. It's not much harder either. But the satisfaction level has risen exponentially.   When I look at what is accomplished, it's a much better feeling to know I did my best here rather than I guess that's good enough. And the greatest blessing and surprise was Leah. At first I didn't think there was really that much difference in what I was doing. I didn't know if it would even be noticeable to anyone besides me and God. But she did notice.

She even told me that she felt cared for, like before I was doing just good enough but now she felt taken care of. I nearly cried. Because giving all my effort, doing housework as though as I was doing it for God, had given me a bonus of making my wife feel more loved and cared for. That was awesome, and now I have two reasons to give it my best effort. I love Leah with all I am, and I never saw or thought that my mediocre effort made her feel less than that. I thought if I pulled the blanket up to the top of the bed and it looked OK she knew I loved her. It made her smile. But when I make it right, that annoying way where you have to fight to pull the sheet down when you get in, she doesn't smile, she beams.

I didn't love Leah less when the cleaning was close enough. I didn't love God less. I simply never understood the depth of And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men - Colossians 3:23. I didn't get that doing as to the Lord doesn't mean do enough to pass. Close enough for government work is not good enough for an offering to God. And that whatever you do means everything you do. God doesn't get our best in ministry, or the job we do for a paycheck, and not in some things. He gets the best effort in everything from sweeping the floor to making the bed. The contentment of life is a much higher return than the amount of effort it takes to go from good enough to this is my best, and the bonuses, such as someone seeing more than hearing how much you care...well, that's a priceless treasure.

Today, as we give all of ourselves, the good and the bad, to God for Him to use as He wills, let that all of us include our best effort in whatever we do, in everything we do, from the trivial to the crucial. We just might be surprised by the returns and amazed by the grace that is poured out to turn our Cs and Fs into As.

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